Overnight, president Obama employed humor as way to diffuse the criticism he's been facing from republicans for not being tough enough on Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine. He pointed out that members of in the gop praised Putin. Pruting is what you call a leader. Mike Huckabee and Sean hannity keep talking about his chest. Which is weird. George was at the big event last night. The president got laughs. Does that take the edge off the fact that his administration seems unable to rein Putin in? A little bit. You're seeing dramatic escalation you have the former ambassador Michael Mcfall saying this is real, this is war. They're starting to rethink whether Putin does want to go into Ukraine with a big way with troops. Their calculation had been that he wanted to destabilize the area. The problem for the administration, military options are off the table. Not clear those would work. And it's tough to get a consensus across Europe about the kind of sanctions that might stop him. The United States and the president especially is determined not the put the United States in the middle of a war over Ukraine. Such a thorny problem. Humor is not going to make it go away. George has a big show this morning. Later this morning on "This week." Right here on ABC. George, thank you.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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